By Emmanuel Gaillot
Hi there! On the behalf of our Retrospective Facilitators community, I'm glad to welcome you on board. We're all thrilled to have you with us at this coming gathering.
My name's Emmanuel Gaillot. This is going to be my third gathering. I'm writing you this because not so long ago I was in your shoes as a newcomer, and boy do I recall how excited and overwhelmed and intrigued and frustrated I was during my first gathering in Baden Baden, Germany, in 2006. I know you will, too. Maybe you are already. This community you're about to enter is a great one, but as in any group that's been around for a while, it has its own rules and culture, its good habits, its idiosyncrasies, its learned lessons from experience – that you don't have yet.
Although I'm still young in this community by its standards, I've known some of its oldest members for a while. I may also have been around enough to understand how the group works. By the way, I'm deeply interested in group dynamics, and especially in the dynamics of this community. I'm fascinated by how it restates its identity more firmly at each gathering, and yet how it isn't afraid to explore and question what it has taken for granted. I'm writing you this because I strongly believe that you'll feel more comfortable, more quickly, if you have an initial grasp on what we value as a group, what we treasure in our history and experience. What we're afraid of, too.
I didn't know any of this the first time I met the Retrospective Facilitators, and I had no idea what was appropriate or not, whether I was upsetting or helpful – or both. It took me quite a while (and a great deal of discussion, too) to find the clues I was missing. I know this blurb won't give you all the answers. The biggest part of your job as a newcomer will still be to find your place within the group. I do, however, sincerely hope it'll take you much less time that it would have had otherwise.
Our 2008 gathering will take place in at the Ammerdown Centre near Bath, UK. The gatherings happen alternatively every two years in a place in Europe (at water spas, for no other reason than quirky folklore) and USA. The first gatherings were in Oregon, then in Arizona, and our 2009 gathering will take place in Minnesota. There are even rumors about getting to China some day. We're that kind of people: celebrating cultural quirks and changing them before they become too much of a weight.
You may wish we had chosen a more central location than Ammerdown which is some miles from the city of Bath. Had we done so however, we'd have lost the water folklore… but that's not the main reason. We're valuing venues with a low-key atmosphere, with a bar nearby – as a token of appreciation for those of us who believe this is where important conversations happen. Part of the lessons we've learned from the past is that luxurious places tend to oppress us and reduce the communication flow. And we value communication a lot! We've also decided we like smaller retreat locations better, since while they provide us with side activities, they don't provide too many distractions and so help keeping the group together.
Keeping the group together is different from coercing everyone into staying with the group, all the time. It may very well happen during the gathering that you'll need some time for yourself, to reflect on what you've learned, to figure out how you feel, or to have your own personal retrospective. Any time this happens – or for that matter any time you want to be by yourself – feel welcome to find yourself a private spot. Just let someone know, so that we don't spend our time looking for you. The group We're quite big of a group. Ok, not that big. We'll be nearly forty in number. Even so, we share most of our time together during the gathering. This means that you might feel a bit disoriented at the beginning with all the new faces talking to you. That's OK. We all know it's difficult to remember that many faces and names – take the time you'll need. Reading the attendees' biographies before the gathering and getting back to them during the gathering will help.
You may think name tags would help, too. Well – some of us aren't crazy about them and won't wear them. Feel free to ask them why, this will be a great start for an icebreaker conversation! People not wearing name tags take full responsibility for making your life harder remembering their names, so they'll never get upset if you ask their name (even several times, even several times in a row) because you can't remember it. Actually, I can't imagine anyone in the group will get upset if you say, “gee, I know we've had this great discussion at breakfast about water-based markers and we've decided we're the best buddies in the world, but now that it's lunch time and I've had seventeen mind-boggling conversations in between I've forgotten your name, what is it again?”
We run our community on the basis of equal respect for every attendee. This means that, even as a newcomer, your concerns and interests weigh as much as anyone else's. We do, however, acknowledge that some of us know more about retrospective facilitation and retrospective facilitators gathering than others. This means that, as frustrating and unfair as it may sound, everyone's opinions don't weigh the same. Now the line of separation between concerns and opinions may be very thin sometimes, and my distinction may feel to you inconsistent at best, hypocritical at worst. I don't think we're a bunch of hypocrites and I know we're struggling hard to be consistent – as difficult as it can be sometimes.
We're committed to be open to any idea, and yet sometimes you may feel like you've been dismissed. If this happens, take a deep breath and say how you feel. There are good chances that you haven't been dismissed at all but people haven't realized they've sounded dismissal. Or there may be other perspectives to consider that you don't have in mind. If you ask, people will tell you what's going on, and you can decide for yourself if it's nonsense or not. Be open yourself. Or be angry and say you are. Sometimes it needs some upset ones to wake the group up and stir it toward a better direction. We know it and welcome it.
Here are our “wise ones,” and why we consider them as such:
Feel free to engage with them in any discussion. The gathering is very informal and not for show-offs. You should find everyone pretty accessible and eager to discuss with you and there's no reason to feel intimidated. However, don’t expect everyone to be excited about the same topics – agile software development and patterns often surface in conversations but not everyone is immersed in those communities. Self organization We spend a great deal of energy to make each gathering a self-organized event. This means most of what will happen during the gathering itself, we don't know in advance. This freaks some people out and it may well be the case with you. Relax, breathe. Although we want to run with the flow, we as a group take full responsibility for making this event valuable for every participant.
The central feature of our self-organization is an “open space,” a special conference format where participants decide right on the spot which contents the conference should feature. We all gather every morning and propose sessions for (the rest of) the gathering. We negotiate the time table and refine our program. You might wonder if, as a newcomer, you may host a session. The answer is a big Yes! If you're not sure you're ready to host a session, that's not a problem either. Maybe you need some time to adjust with the group. Let one or two days pass by to get a more acute sense about how things are going.
Some of the sessions are serious, some are more unconventional and playful. Some of them have been rehearsed for a time, some of them might just be follow-ups of previous sessions – or elaboration on previous informal conversations. As they say, “be prepared to be surprised.” If you want to run a session, you might wonder whether the topic you have in mind is appropriate. This is a very valid concern, and we appreciate your willingness to fit in. If you have doubts, I suggest you ask others, perhaps one of the more seasoned participants first, and hear what they think about it.
We're not crazy about rules. We like to be able to experiment, to discover what we're doing together while doing it together. However, the group has made some patterns emerge and we honor them since they're part of the identity of our community.
Technology – we tend to keep it minimal. There'll be one shared computer with Internet access in the library, but remember: we, as a group, take full responsibility for making the gathering worthwhile to every participant. You're part of the group, you have your share of responsibility. Pay attention to when and how frequently you're surfing the Internet or checking your mail while with us. Please also remember that others might need to check their mail, so don't plan on surfing the net for hours in a row. The default room setup is without a beamer. If you need to project presentation slides, we'll be able to get a beamer from the venue. Bear in mind our group tend to frown upon slideshows, as it draws the focus on one person talking to the group. We prefer group discussions instead.
Photographs – be careful with taking pictures. While it's usually ok to make photos of paper outputs from the sessions, some of us strongly believe the gathering is an event of the here and the now – not an event for others, later – and want to keep it that way. Some of us hate flashes. Some of us don't want to be on any picture at all. This might sound very odd to you, but hey, that's who we are. Before taking pictures, double check everyone in the room is ok with that. Chances are one person at least won't be ok, so my personal take is: don't even bother asking and disturbing the flow. Just keep your camera in its case, open your eyes and ears, take in as much as you can, and write a journal if you're afraid of forgetting some fond moments. That's what I do anyway.
Wiki – we use a wiki to capture outputs from each sessions - http://www.retrospectivefacilitatorgathering.org/ We value this activity because it helps keeping track of what's been said and discovered – especially for those who haven't attended the session. We believe it's the responsibility of the group to write up notes on the wiki. Don't expect someone will be in charge and do this for others.
I know it's a lot to take in, and to some extent I'm not precise enough to be anything but confusing. Don't panic. If you have questions, feel free to ask me – my address is egaillot@octo.com. Although if you have questions about getting to the gathering and logostics then contact Rachel Davies rachel@agilexp.com. Let what you've just read sink in and it'll hopefully make sense soon.
Please attend the welcome session at the start of the gathering. It explains how things work, and it has a “getting to know people” part. This should help you getting started.
During the gathering, feel free to check with some seasoned participant any time you feel you're about to do something inappropriate. There are good chances it will not be inappropriate at all. As in any strongly bonded community, we have our totems and our taboos. You may brush the group against the grain sometimes, but don't sweat about it. We feel fortunate to have our share of iconoclasts and taboo-shooters. We're in good shape and we're excited about the future of the field of project retrospectives. We're excited you're part of that future, too.
Yours truly, Emmanuel.